Dancing With Shadows
by OceanMist9
Summary: She wanted normal. Silly Rylin.


Because finally, my best friend in the world gave me the bloodiest brilliant idea, ever.

Rylin and Nico, into normality they shall go. Powers, cease to be. Rylin, cease to fly. Gods, cease to exist. Imagine: Nico, the school's bad boy. Rylin, the school's good girl. She wanted normal. Rylin, you poor thing, running your ex over and then realizing you're still in love with him isn't normal.

Not even for you, goddess. Not even for you.

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_"Be my bad boy, be my man, be my weekend lover, but don't be my friend._

_You can be my bad boy, but understand that I don't need you in my life again."_

_~Bad Boy,_

_sung by Cascada, _

_recorded in Perfect Day_

* * * * * * * * * *

**(average)**

* * * * * * * * * ***  
**

Curse that day.

* * * * * * * * * *

Oh, I loved that car.

It was a bright green. The color reminded me of summer days spent in meadows, romping through the brightly colored flowers; it brought to mind the memories of spring, when the trees shook the ice off their ancient limbs and stood high, proudly displaying their new veil of soft young leaves. In remembrance of past joys. In honor of new lives, they proudly held their boughs high, as they and they alone had managed to outlive winter's biting chill.

Inside that lime green car o' memories, I shifted uneasily on the soft cushioned seats, my fingers clenched tightly around the steering wheel. My teeth were gritted, my eyes were rolled, and still she advanced slowly on my window, waving with a faked heartiness, her peppy smile still in place.

I reluctantly rolled the window down before she tapped the glass. I didn't want her perkiness smearing all over it.

"Hey, Ryley!" she exclaimed loudly, snapping her gum as she leaned her elbow heavily on the door frame. I almost choked on her rotten cigarette breath.

Blonde hair spiraled halfway down Kendra's back, held back by a bright red headband decorated with sequins that glinted in the sunshine. She was still wearing her cheerleading outfit, a pure white C embossed on her right shoulder. I nearly curled my lip at it. Showoff.

Kendra was your typical cheerleader; blonde, peppy, no brains whatsoever. She strutted around the school as the Queen Bee, always ordering, always demanding. We were all the tiny, insignificant worker bees in the hive, ignored and forgotten, but very important to run Kendra's world. She couldn't survive without us. And that was why, as she once again opened her big fat mouth, I gave her a sugar-coated sweet grin, as eager to remind her where we stood as she was to shove me back into my place.

"Kendra," I said, allowing the smile to fade off into oblivion. That had been obvious enough that even Kendra Welsh could not have mistaken it.

"What are you doing here?" she said, boredom abounding in her voice. She gestured back toward the brick building behind her in a little wave of her fingers.

It was a justified question. What was I, Rylin Becker, straight-A student, Daddy's perfect little angel, doing at Fairbank's local jail?

"Waiting for someone," I replied, irritation biting at me. Where was my brother? Had the idiot gotten himself suspended for starting a fistfight again? I swore, if he had, I was going to-

"Me too!" Kendra burst out, bouncing a little as she leaned forward into my car. I felt myself instinctively shift away, wincing inwardly. My poor car. "My boyfriend, actually. I'm sure you know him, right? Nico di'Angelo?"

Oh yes, I thought darkly. I knew him all right.

What Kendra was doing with someone like that, I had no idea. Why couldn't she just stick to dating the varsity quarterback of the football team and making the rest of us feel inferior? Nico was definitely bad news, and I wanted nothing to do with him.

"Yeah, I know him." I muttered. Anything to get her out of my car.

She sat back, looking satisfied. I breathed a quiet sigh of relief. "He's supposed to be out already," Kendra pouted, her hands on her hips. God forbid anything that annoyed the Queen Bee. She twirled a curl around her finger, trying to look thoughtful. It didn't work at all.

"Yeah, well, I think I see my brother over there," I lied, my eyes already flickering away from Kendra. Rolling up the window as I went, my foot slipped onto the gas pedal almost desperately. My car jumped ahead. I'd had enough.

I didn't look forward until Kendra screamed.

My head slammed around so fast, it almost gave me whiplash. Tires screeched against pavement as my foot smashed down on the brake, my poor car skidding across the parking lot. It finally rested an inch from Kendra's perfectly parked Chevrolet, and I was left staring hard at the steering wheel, unable to look up, to see the damage I had caused.

Someone rapped on the hood of my car. I forced my gaze up.

Oh boy.

Nico di'Angelo's eyes met mine fiercely. For some reason, instead of shrinking away like I normally would have, I glared at him, pouring all my frustration at Kendra into my eyes, challenging, daring him to say something.

"No apology?!" he snapped at me, and I cupped my hand around my ear, shrugging as I pointed toward my rolled up window. I _could _hear him, but _he _didn't know that. I barely kept from grinning.

Kendra dashed in front of my car, launching herself at Nico with a click of her high heeled, expensive shoes. She wrapped her arms around his waist, burying her face into his dark leather jacket. I had to hold down my breakfast as I watched them, forcing myself to focus on the fact that Kendra now had big fat tears rolling down her stupid face. Her mascara was running.

"You almost ran him over!" Kendra shrieked at me, stomping her foot. The heel on her shoe shattered. Her ankle rolled, and she almost crashed onto the hood of my car. Nico caught her at the last second, sending me another glare. I burst out laughing. My relief at the fact that I hadn't actually ran him over was overwhelming.

Nico rolled his eyes at me, his palm still resting on the hood. He was downright frightening this close up. Inky black hair framed an olive tanned face, with deep, dusky eyes that held the darkness as if they had never seen light. Right now they were narrowed angrily, thin slits of ebony that didn't soften in the noon day sun. Eyes that never softened for anything, or anyone, even the girl in his arms.

I bit back my laugh, hardening my eyes in return. Thoughts of really running them over with my car passed through my mind, but I reluctantly turned the key, shutting the engine off. Had my stupid good-girl reputation to uphold.

Nico released Kendra, who looked up at him with tear-stained eyes. He gently eased himself around her, brushing against my car as he came around to the driver's side, that scowl back on his face.

I rolled down the window, still staring hard at Nico. Prying my fingers from the steering wheel, I relaxed back into my leather seat, feeling my relief drain away with my next exhalation of breath. It was replaced by an unbearable seed of dread and hate that burrowed deeply into my stomach, settling there like a brick.

"Still waiting for that apology, Becker," he breathed into my ear as my resolve not to give it hardened into iron. I stared straight forward through the windshield, watching and yet not watching Kendra attempt to clean herself up sloppily, as shaken as she still was.

I slid my lip under my teeth as I breathed deep. "No."

His eyes widened, like he couldn't believe I'd had that refusal in me. "No?"

"No," I agreed, finally turning to burn a glare at him. "I apologize for nearly running you over, but I'm not going to apologize for before. I meant it."

Nico's dark eyes turned icy cold, but he was still in control. A small smile floated on his lips as he took in everything; my trembling hands, which I had tried to cover up by crossing my arms, my ruffled hair, from slamming on the brakes so speedily, and my stubborn scowl that nearly matched his own. I had learned.

"Still trying to please Daddy?" Nico's tone was meant to prick me, and prick me it did. His smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he watched my eyes narrow slowly, calculating.

Instead of answering, I raised an eyebrow. "How was jail?"

"Good times and good memories. You wouldn't last a day in there, _angel_." Normally being called an angel would have made my day, but the way it rolled off Nico's tongue made me want to yell at him to take it back. I bit my lip. He continued.

"Still trying to be the perfect little angel everyone thinks you are, Ryley?" He leaned in closer, his face mocking. "_I _saw through you right away. Always hiding behind Daddy, behind your façade that you built for yourself to block other people out. Why not try to be yourself for a change? Is the angel afraid of being rejected?"

"Shut up!" I hissed furiously.

His eyes continued to taunt me. "Still haven't gotten over me?"

I reeled backwards, my eyes wide in fury and disbelief. "You wish!"

"Is there a problem here, di'Angelo?"

Brian's voice broke through my red haze. Nico's face was so close to my own that his mocking eyes were all I could see, and my angry reflection in them, sparkling so brightly in the dark. In the broiling pits of hell.

My brother yanked Nico out of my car, shoving him toward Kendra, whose puffy red eyes had not been concealed by the layers of makeup. "Back off, man," Nico snapped, and I was pleased to hear the slight tremble in his voice. Brian was the captain of the varsity hockey team at Fairbanks' high school, and as his little sister I was practically untouchable.

I allowed an innocent smile to settle over my lips, watching Nico. He shot me a veiled glance, the anger fading mysteriously fading from his eyes as they met mine. He turned his back on Brian, sweeping past Kendra to the driver's side of her Chevrolet. "Let's get out of here, Kend."

The Queen Bee stumbled to the passenger's side, her eyes still smeared with tears. A chord of sympathy rumbled through me as I watched her. I hated Kendra, but I loathed Nico more strongly than the Queen Bee. I couldn't help the feeling of pity stirring in my heart as the driver's door slammed shut, reverberating in my ears probably longer than it should have. The Chevrolet's tires squealed as it tore out of the parking lot, racing around the corner and out of sight. I rested my gaze on Brian, who stared off in the distance after Nico.

Finally he turned wordlessly toward me, skirting around my car to open the passenger door. He slipped in, the door shutting quietly behind him.

He didn't speak. But with that silence, I knew all that my brother was thinking, what he was telling me without a word. I turned the key in the ignition, the engine roaring to life.

"Thanks, Brian," I murmured as we rounded the corner for home. Staring straight through the windshield at the crumbling, old buildings of Fairbanks depressed me. I was tired of small towns, of everyone knowing your name right off the top of their heads. It felt crowded, claustrophobic. How would it not be?

"Di'Angelo's a real piece of work," Brian agreed quietly beside me. Something tightened in my stomach. Nico hadn't always been so….

My jaw clenched. I would not go down that road as I had in the past. He had changed. I had as well.

"Stay away from him," Brian warned as I turned onto our driveway. "He could make your life as miserable as hell." The unspoken word hung in the air. _Again_.

I slid the key out of the ignition, resting it in my palm as I paused.

"There's no chance of that happening. Ever."

I opened the door of my bug, and my mind latched itself onto another subject, my defense mechanism in action. "And Brian, about the Datsun…I just might decide to take you up on that offer."

My hand slid over the smooth lime green paint of the bug. It didn't seem so appealing anymore.

I couldn't tell in the shade of the apple tree adorning our front yard, but I could have sworn he was smiling. "Sure, Ryley. Anything you want." The door rustled softly as he slipped inside.

Anything I wanted. Well, that was just wonderful.

Because, for the second time in my life, I wanted the only thing I couldn't have.

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Anyway, I decided to make this maybe a threeshot or a twoshot. RylinXNiconess cannot be contained in one chapter, alas. So wait you must.

Oh, and thanks for the encouragement, MuSiCxcDj. I really needed it. You're awesome.

Reviews, anyone?


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